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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Living Room Paint Colors

I've been fantasizing about paint colors recently. Our living room gets very little light, so I've been trying to decide the direction we want to go in. This website recommends putting bright colors in dark rooms, and after experimenting with a pale blue in the dining room, I'm inclined to agree.

It now feels like a dark hallway in an old hospital. Lots of shadows.

So I'm looking away from the grays, pastels, and neutrals, and reaching for bold. It'll totally be a stretch for me since I've never ever painted my kitchen Peacock Blue or my old apartment in Atlanta turquoise. Nope, that was another Starr.

Anyway...one possibility is Cayman Bay by Behr. You can see it on someone's wall on the blog Hairy Shoe Fairy. Just scroll down a bit and you'll see it. It is a really lovely color.

We have a test pot of the gold color, so we're going to put some up on the walls in both the dining and living rooms to see how the light reflects. Yellow is a cliche for dark rooms, so that's why we're going to give it a try first.

Bold is the word of the day. Any other suggestions? We've vetoed orange tones because of a terrible failure with terra cotta a few years ago. Otherwise, the sky's the limit.

I don't think Cayman Bay is too dark at all! House Beautiful did a great piece on small spaces, some of which had little to no natural light, and most were painted dark colors. This would be a designer risk, not safe.

I've considered a Kelly Green, but haven't found the right shade. I don't want anything olive or grey-green. And purple has been vetoed. I'm okay with that.

I like what you've picked. I was going to suggest purple as well, but I see that has been vetoed. I actually really like all the fun, citrusey Oranges that are out now. I'm always partial to blues & greens.

umm..that site just totally blew my mind!! i was all set to use Behr's "Grey Beige" (Beige Grey?) to help "lighten" my too dark living room (the one with the way too dark fireplace)-- now i see that is not going to help anything...back to the drawing (painting?) board...